Company
(location)

University/
nonprofit

Type of
agreement

Product area

Details

Date

august

Abeona Therapeutics Inc. (Cleveland)

EB Research Partnership and EB Research Medical Foundation

Collaboration agreement

For gene therapy treatments for epidermolysis bullosa

Terms were not disclosed

8/10/16

Altimmune Inc. (Gaithersburg, Md.)

U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority

Contract

To fund the clinical development of Nasoshield, its anthrax vaccine candidate

Was awarded a contract valued at up to $120.2M over five years

8/2/16

Biolinerx Ltd. (Tel Aviv)

Hadasit, the Technology Transfer Company of Hadassah Medical Organization

Exclusive, worldwide agreement

To in-license a drug candidate to treat liver fibrosis and, in particular, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis

Terms were not disclosed; the candidate, BL-1210, designed to control liver fibrosis by modulating the immune system, is the first project to be in-licensed under a multi-year strategic collaboration between Biolinerx and Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, initiated in December 2014

8/2/16

Biolinerx Ltd. (Tel Aviv, Israel)

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Collaboration agreement

For a phase II study testing BL-8040 in combination with PD-1 inhibitor Keytruda (pembrolizumab, Merck & Co. Inc.) in pancreatic cancer

Biolinerx will supply BL-8040 for the study, which is expected to commence later this year

8/9/16

Cancer Research Technology (commercial arm of Cancer Research U.K.)

University of Birmingham and its commercial arm, Alta Innovations

Two-year collaboration agreement

Development and commercialization of the university's cancer research

The partners plan to share financial benefits derived from the work

8/9/16

Cell Medica Ltd. (London)

University College London

Research collaboration

Aiming to use their T-cell receptor technology to generate modified TCR products to treat cancer

The transaction also provides Cell Medica with an exclusive worldwide option and license agreement for the technologies as well as TCR gene sequences for the development and commercialization of specific products; following completion of successful first-in-human studies, the products will transfer to Cell Medica for later-stage clinical development and commercialization; the company has paid an up-front fee and will make additional payments to exercise its exclusive option to license future products; UCL is eligible to receive further payments related to clinical, regulatory and sales milestones, as well as single digit royalties

8/25/16

Denali Therapeutics Inc. (South San Francisco)

Washington University School of Medicine

Collaboration

For the development and commercialization of antibodies targeting ApoE, a protein implicated in Alzheimer's disease

Terms were not disclosed

8/26/16

Editas Medicine Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.)

Massachusetts General Hospital

Exclusive license agreement

To access intellectual property and technology related to high-fidelity Cas9 nucleases and Cas9 PAM variants that will enable the firm to address an expanded range of genetically defined diseases with potential for enhanced specificity

Financial terms were not disclosed

8/4/16

Emergent Biosolutions Inc. (Gaithersburg, Md.)

Centers for Disease Control

Contract option

For the supply of Vaccinia Immune globulin into the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile

The contract option is valued at $11.6M over 12 months; the therapeutic is licensed by the FDA to treat complications due to smallpox vaccination

8/11/16

Evelo Biosciences Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.)

Mayo Clinic

Exclusive collaboration

To advance immuno-microbiome-based therapies for cancer

The company will work with Mayo to isolate and characterize cancer-associated bacteria from patient stool samples and tumor biopsies in service of contributing to Evelo's cancer-associated bacteria library

8/3/16

Geovax Labs Inc. (Atlanta)

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Staged Vaccine Development contract

To further develop its preventive HIV vaccine (GOVX-B11) and to manufacture the DNA component of GOVX-B11 for use in advanced human trials

The base portion of the contract, with a value of $199,442, will support preparatory work for initiating manufacturing, and the contract also includes $7.6M in development options that may be exercised by NIAID, for a total potential contract value of $7.8M

8/3/16

Lion Biotechnologies Inc. (New York)

National Cancer Institute

CRADA

Extended for an additional five years to 2021

The company will continue to work with Steven A. Rosenberg, chief of NCI's surgery branch, to develop tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) that were not genetically altered as stand-alone therapy or in combination with FDA-licensed products used to treat indications covered under the CRADA, including therapies to treat metastatic melanoma, bladder, lung, breast and HPV-associated cancers

8/26/16

Moleculin Biotech Inc. (Houston)

MD Anderson Cancer Center

Expanded sponsored research agreement

Also extended through August 2017

Terms were not disclosed

8/10/16

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Tarrytown, N.Y.)

Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority

Agreement

To manufacture and study two antibodies for the potential prevention and treatment of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome

The agreement includes funding of up to $8.9M to support packaging and labeling of the antibodies for human use, the preparation and submission of an investigational new drug application with the FDA, and a National Institutes of Health-conducted clinical trial in healthy volunteers

8/23/16

Sab Biotherapeutics Inc. (Sioux Falls, S.D.)

Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority

Contract

For advanced clinical manufacturing and testing of its antibody (SAB-301) to treat MERS-CoV

SAB-301 was produced using the Diversitab platform, which leverages transchromosomic cattle, or Tc bovine, that were genetically designed to produce large amounts of human polyclonal antibodies quickly in response to an antigen such as MERS

8/25/16

Vedanta Biosciences Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.)

NYU Langone Medical Center

Collaboration agreement

Focused on developing microbiome-derived immunotherapies for cancer patients being treated with checkpoint inhibitors

Vedanta will collaborate with a group of oncologists on clinical studies to support the identification of new microbiome immunotherapies

8/12/16

Vortex Biosciences Inc. (Menlo Park, Calif.)

Harvard University

Licensing agreement

For a series of four patents covering a cell electroporation technology

Vortex will combine that technology with its circulating tumor cell enrichment technology

8/4/16

september

Abbvie Inc. (North Chicago), Biogen Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.) and Eli Lilly and Co. (Indianapolis)

Washington University School of Medicine

Partnership

In a two-year program to investigate the buildup and clearance of tau protein in the brains of patients with the disease

The tau SILK (Stable Isotope Labeling Kinetics) consortium came together around the technique, developed by WashU scientists to monitor alterations in the rate at which tau is produced, released and cleared from the brain and its surrounding fluid in patients with Alzheimer's disease

9/12/16

Abeona Therapeutics Inc. (Cleveland)

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Exclusive worldwide license agreement

For a next-generation gene therapy AAV capsid portfolio from UNC

The AIM vector system is a platform of AAV capsids capable of widespread central nervous system gene transfer and can be used to confer high transduction efficiency for various therapeutic indications; the license also adds ABO-202, an AAV-based CLN1 program developed at UNC, to Abeona's pipeline for Batten disease

9/22/16

Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc (Philadelphia)

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Multi-year strategic alliance

To speed the development of adoptive T-cell therapies for multiple types of cancer

MD Anderson's preclinical and clinical teams will work with Adaptimmune's scientists and its SPEAR (Specific Peptide Enhanced Affinity Receptor) T-cell technology platform, targeting MAGE-A10 and future clinical stage first- and second-generation SPEAR T-cell therapies such as MAGE-A4 across a number of cancers, including bladder, lung, ovarian, head and neck, melanoma, esophageal and gastric cancers; the alliance will also drive research and development of other new SPEAR TCR therapies to targets in other tumor types such as breast cancers and facilitate clinical study participation by MD Anderson in other Adaptimmune trials

9/27/16

Aslan Pharmaceuticals Pte. Ltd. (Singapore)

Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research

Licensing agreement

For a preclinical immuno-oncology antibody targeting RON (Recepteur d'Origine Nantais), with plans to develop and commercialize it globally

Under the terms of the agreement, Aslan will gain global rights to develop the antibody and intends to start clinical studies in 2018; commercial terms were not disclosed

9/2/16

Biolinerx Ltd. (Tel Aviv, Israel)

BGN Technologies (transfer arm of Ben-Gurion University) and Hadasit (technology transfer company of Hadassah Medical Organization)

Exclusive, worldwide agreement

For the in-licensing of a treatment for various liver failure conditions such as end-stage liver disease and for conditions potentially leading to liver failure such as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis

The treatment, to be named BL-1220, is the second project in-licensed under the framework of the company's strategic collaboration with Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, for the screening and development of drug candidates

9/26/16

Biopontis Alliance for Rare Diseases (Raleigh, N.C.)

VIB (life science research institute; Brussels)

Strategic partnership

In rare diseases, with the first program aimed at developing a treatment for one form of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a rare, progressive neuropathy with no approved therapies

Terms were not disclosed

9/6/16

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (Ingelheim, Germany)

Sarah Cannon Research Institute

Collaboration

To use Boehringer's experience in cancer drug development and Sarah Cannon's expertise in designing and optimizing clinical trials

The program will study the firm's monoclonal antibodies – anti-PD-1 candidate BI 754091 and anti-LAG3 candidate BI 754111 – for the combination treatment of multiple cancers with high unmet medical needs, including non-small-cell lung cancer

9/30/16

Cantabio Pharmaceuticals Inc. (San Francisco)

U.K.'s Cambridge Enterprise

License agreement

Giving it access to intellectual property from research targeting the tau protein to treat tauopathies such as Alzheimer's disease and dementia

The licensed therapeutic program contains data and know-how for a set of small-molecule drug candidates that bind to the tau protein and reduce its misfolding and aggregation

9/8/16

Charles River Laboratories International Inc. (Wilmington, Mass.)

Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute

Partnership

To accelerate the development of therapeutics that arise from discoveries made in Tri-I TDI's academic labs

Tri-I TDI is a cooperative endeavor of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Rockefeller University and Weill Cornell Medicine, with a focus on the early stages of compound and biologic agent development, as well as proof-of-concept studies that determine which drug candidates can successfully alter the course of a disease

9/23/16

Domain Therapeutics SA (Strasbourg, France)

Universite de Montreal, its unit the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer-Commercialization of Research, and McGill University

Licensing and partnership agreement

For G protein-coupled receptor biosensor technology

The first licensing agreement was signed at the end of 2013; the agreement gives Domain exclusive access to a new set of more powerful biosensors

9/28/16

Evotec GmbH (Hamburg, Germany)

Inserm Transfert

Research collaboration

To characterize and develop new selective modulators of RhoB functions as a promising approach to increase therapeutic options in many cancers with high unmet need

RhoB is implicated in the control of cellular stress response, migration, tumor neovascularization and progression

9/23/16

Fate Therapeutics Inc. (San Diego)

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Partnership

For the development of off-the-shelf T-cell product candidates using engineered pluripotent cell lines

In connection with the partnership, Fate Therapeutics has exclusively licensed from Memorial Sloan Kettering foundational intellectual property covering induced pluripotent cell-derived immune cells, including T cells and NK cells derived from pluripotent cells engineered with chimeric antigen receptors, for human therapeutic use; Fate maintains an option to exclusively license intellectual property arising from all research and development activities under the collaboration

9/8/16

Galmed Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Tel Aviv, Israel)

University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine

Agreement

For a phase I/IIa trial to assess safety, tolerability, efficacy and pharmacokinetics of Aramchol in a juvenile population with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

The ARTISAN Study is expected to be initiated in the first half of 2017

9/23/16

Gilead Sciences Inc. (Foster City, Calif.)

World Health Organization

Partnership

To expand access to diagnostic services and treatment for visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also known as kala-azar or black fever

Gilead agreed to provide $20M in funding and drug donations over five years to the World Health Organization (WHO); Gilead will donate 380,000 vials of Ambisome (amphotericin B liposome for injection) to support WHO's efforts to treat VL in endemic countries

9/29/16

Golden Meditech Holdings Ltd. (Hong Kong)

University of Texas at MD Anderson Cancer Center

Agreement

To create Cellenkos Inc., a startup focused on umbilical cord blood derived T-regulatory cellular therapies

Cellenkos, to be based in Houston, is funded with an initial investment of $10M with warrants to purchase an additional $10M worth of shares by Golden Meditech and an undisclosed independent strategic investor

9/20/16

Homology Medicines Inc. (Lexington, Mass.)

California Institute of Technology

Licensing agreement

For worldwide rights to an in vivo adeno-associated virus technology, which it plans to combine with its next-generation in vivo gene-editing and gene transfer technology to develop treatments for CNS disorders, with an initial focus on rare indications

Caltech granted Homology a co-exclusive license to specific patented AAV capsid sequences and peptides with demonstrated ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, as well as a nonexclusive license to the patented methodology for in vivo screening, engineering and enrichment of AAV capsids

9/16/16

Kite Pharma Inc. (Santa Monica, Calif.)

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Exclusive, worldwide license

For intellectual property related to multiple T-cell receptor-based product candidates to treat tumors expressing mutated KRAS antigens

Kite will pay NIH an up-front payment and certain clinical, regulatory and sales milestones, as well as royalties on net sales of products covered by the license

9/22/16

Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany)

Divine Project European consoritium

Agreement

To join the Divine Project to address the biggest challenges facing the development, manufacture and delivery of vaccines

Merck's specific focus will be on simplifying the process of vaccine purification that typically relies on affinity chromatography, a method of capturing antibodies

9/15/16

Morphotek Inc. (Exton, Pa.)

Fox Chase Cancer Center

Sponsored research agreement

To expand its research efforts into the immunosuppressive effects elicited by tumor shed antigens on the efficacy of immune-based therapies

The collaboration will use primary human organoid cultures derived from various cancer types using optimized assays developed by ongoing research at FCCC and will focus on expanding knowledge of the biological pathways involved in suppressing patients' immune responses to tumors prior to and during immune-based therapeutic exposure

9/14/16

Opentherapeutics.org (Columbus, Ohio)

Nationwide Children's Hospital

Licensing agreement

For a class of anti-cancer drugs, amphilic amines (RCn), which showed promise against mouse models of cancer, including pediatric and adult sarcomas, lymphoma and neuroblastoma

In vivo studies suggested that RCn enhances the effectiveness of the approved anti-cancer chemotherapy drugs etoposide, doxorubicin, and paclitaxel by acting as a nanocarrier; the technology may provide an ability to target cancer more directly by delivering existing chemotherapy drugs directly into the cancer cells

9/2/16

Protein Sciences Corp. (Meriden, Conn.)

U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority

Contract

As part of its medical countermeasures against pandemic influenza and influenza strains with pandemic potential

Protein Sciences will use its platform technology, which produced Flublok (seasonal) and Panblok (pandemic) for producing vaccines and stands to receive up to $610M through 2021 if BARDA exercises all options

9/8/16

Redhill Biopharma Ltd. (Tel-Aviv, Israel)

Stanford University School of Medicine

Research collaboration

To evaluate Redhill's phase II-stage drug, Yeliva (ABC294640)

The deal is intended to complement Redhill's planned phase Ib study to evaluate Yeliva as a radioprotectant for prevention of mucositis in head and neck cancer patients undergoing therapeutic radiotherapy

9/13/16

Selexis SA (Geneva)

International AIDS Vaccine initiative

Expanded collaboration

For two additional service agreements, in which Selexis will develop research cell banks to manufacture multiple HIV envelope proteins engineered by scientists at IAVI's Neutralizing Antibody Center at The Scripps Research Institute and other parts of TSRI to help induce the generation of neutralizing antibodies against HIV through vaccinations

Financial terms were not disclosed

9/23/16

Sellas Life Sciences Group (Zug, Switzerland)

U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

CRADA

To develop an acute myeloid leukemia (AML) minimal residual disease assay for monitoring the expression of multiple genes, including WT1, that can document the kinetics of MRD in AML during treatment with the company's WT1 cancer vaccine, galinpepimut-S

The late clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy is being developed to target hematologic cancers and solid tumors, including AML, malignant pleural mesothelioma, multiple myeloma and, ovarian cancer

9/15/16

Takeda Vaccines Inc. (Deerfield, Ill.; unit of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.; Osaka, Japan)

Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority

Agreement

To develop a vaccine to support the Zika virus response in the U.S. and other affected regions

Takeda will develop an inactivated, adjuvanted, whole Zika virus vaccine, manufactured at its facilities in Hikari, Japan; the agreement called for initial BARDA funding of $19.8M over the next 18 months to support investigational new drug application-enabling toxicology and preclinical studies and to cover vaccine development through phase I; Takeda stands to receive potential funding of up to $312M through 2022 if BARDA exercises all options through phase III development and the filing of a U.S. biologics license application

9/2/16

The Medicines Co. (Parsippany, N.J.) and Roche AG (Basel, Switzerland)

Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority

Agreement

To develop products to combat the emerging threat of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections, or superbugs

BARDA will provide more than $32M over four years to MDCO in a partnership that could add up to $100M more over approximately five years; the agreement with Roche calls for more than $35M in BARDA funding over two years and, potentially, another $116.6M over five years; the companies committed to dip into their own coffers for additional funding to advance their products and bring them to market

9/22/16

Theranexus SAS (Lyon, France)

Lille University, Lille University Hospital, Inserm and Groupe Synerlab SAS (France)

Agreement

Theranexus received funding from the French Inter-ministry Fund for its project, CX-COG

The project concerns the pharmaceutical formulation development and clinical validation of the efficacy of THN201 in the treatment of neurocognitive impairment particularly associated with Alzheimer's disease; the goal is to demonstrate the clinical performance of a combination of donepezil, a reference treatment for neurocognitive impairment, and an existing medication that improves the efficacy of donepezil fivefold

9/21/16

Twoxar Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.)

Asian Liver Center at Stanford University School of Medicine

Collaboration

To support research focused on the identification of drug candidates targeting hepatocellular carcinoma using the firm's software-driven discovery platform to make disease-to-candidate predictions

Those candidates will be validated through preclinical studies by researchers at the Asian Liver Center

9/9/16

Verastem Inc. (Boston) and Merck & Co. Inc. (Kenilworth, N.J.)

Cancer Research U.K.

Partnership

On a trial combining immunotherapy drugs in mesothelioma, non-small-cell lung and pancreatic cancers, as part of its Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre Combinations Alliance

The phase Ib/IIa trial will investigate whether a focal adhesion kinase inhibitor drug from Verastem (VS-6063, defactinib) can boost the effectiveness of Merck's PD-1 immunotherapy drug, Keytruda (pembrolizumab)

9/30/16

Voyager Therapeutics Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.)

CHDI Foundation Inc.

Research collaboration

To advance the VY-HTT01 program, an adeno-associated virus-mediated gene-silencing therapy for Huntington's disease

The collaboration buildings on a partnership between CHDI and Sanofi Genzyme and includes funding from CHDI to support the filing of an investigational new drug application, as well as completion of a phase I clinical trial; CHDI will be reimbursed upon VY-HTT01 achieving certain commercial milestones

9/13/16

Voyager Therapeutics Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.)

California Institute of Technology

Co-exclusive worldwide licensing deal

Related to adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsids, covering all fields of use and including AAV capsids that have demonstrated enhanced blood-brain barrier penetration for the potential treatment of CNS diseases following systemic administration of an AAV gene therapy vector

Voyager agreed to purchase co-exclusive rights to the AAV capsids, intellectual property and related technology and will further compensate Caltech upon achievement of certain development and regulatory milestones and share royalties upon the potential commercial launch of products utilizing the capsids included in the agreement

9/16/16

october

Advanced Proteome Therapeutics Corp. (Vancouver, British Columbia)

Toronto Recombinant Antibody Centre at the University of Toronto

Exclusive option agreement

To license validated antibody candidates suited for development of antibody-drug conjugates as potential treatments for cancer

APC and UT will conduct a jointly funded research program to evaluate the efficacy of the ADCs as cancer therapeutics; UT is entitled to receive a maximum of 2M APC common shares

10/20/16

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (New Haven, Conn.); Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (Ingelheim, Germany); Celgene Corp. (Summit, N.J.) and Gilead Sciences Inc. (Foster City, Calif.)

Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

Collaborative research agreement

Called the Beat AML Master trial, the effort is focused on acute myeloid leukemia

The therapies include Alexion's anti-CD200 antibody samalizumab (ALXN6000), Boehringer's BI 836858, targeting CD33, Celgene's IDH2 inhibitor enasidenib (AG-221/CC-90007), and Gilead's entospletinib, an adenosine triphosphate competitive inhibitor of Syk

10/19/16

Aradigm Corp. (Hayward, Calif.) and the U.K. Defense Science and Technology Laboratory

U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency

Agreement

The U.K. Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) has received funding of up to $6.9M from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency for a program, titled "Inhalational ciprofloxacin for improved protection against biowarfare agents"; the inhalational ciprofloxacin formulations used in that program are Aradigm's investigational drugs, Pulmaquin and Lipoquin

The total potential funding provided to Dstl is $3.2M for the base period and $3.7M for the option period; the initial funding released is $1.7M

10/19/16

Aslan Pharmaceuticals Pte. Ltd. (Singapore)

Nanyang Technological University

Licensing and research collaboration

To develop modybodies

The stabilized heavy chain monoclonal antibody fragments, which are thought to improve tissue penetration due to their size, also can be linked into heterodimers/trimers to create novel molecules; the partners will initiate development of modybodies against three targets of Aslan's choice, with the first candidate expected to enter the clinic in 2018; Aslan gained an exclusive option, under pre-negotiated terms, to obtain global rights to develop and commercialize modybodies

10/14/16

AUM Lifetech Inc. (Philadelphia)

Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, and McGill University

Collaboration

To develop a new approach to HIV treatment

Data showed the inhibitor of HIV replication using AUM's FANA antisense technology

10/7/16

Berg Inc. (Boston)

Department of Defense's Clinical Breast Care Project, including Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the Windber Research Institute and the Henry Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine

CRADA

To advance breast cancer research and develop personalized treatment strategies for breast cancer patients

The agreement expands Berg's relationship with Department of Defense research initiatives; the company formed a research collaboration in prostate cancer in late 2013 with Center for Prostate Disease Research at Walter Reed; the ongoing project has advanced novel biomarkers for diagnoses of prostate cancer into prospective clinical trials following validation in retrospective cohorts

10/25/16

Celgene Corp. (Summit, N.J.)

Sage Bionetworks (Seattle)

Collaboration

To develop a technical application for the iPhone using the Apple ResearchKit

The app would promote understanding of chronic anemia related to myelodysplastic syndromes or beta-thalassemia

10/19/16

Celsion Corp. (Lawrenceville, N.J.)

Children's Research Institute

Collaboration

To conduct a clinical study of Thermodox, Celsion's heat-activated liposomal encapsulation of doxorubicin, in combination with magnetic resonance-guided high intensity focused ultrasound to treat relapsed or refractory solid tumors in children and young adults

The investigator-sponsored phase I study is being partially funded by the NIH and is expected to commence in the fourth quarter

10/12/16

Cleveland Biolabs Inc. (Buffalo, N.Y.)

Department of Defense

Modified agreement

For its Joint Warfighter Medical Research Program contract award with CBLI valued at up to $9.2M, which supports further development of entolimod as a medical radiation countermeasure

The modification changes the original statement by eliminating certain tasks no longer deemed critical for the preparation of a BLA of entolimod as a radiation countermeasure and establishes new tasks to address questions raised by the FDA, including an aim to conduct a pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic biocomparability study in a nonhuman primate model, along with other drug manufacturing-related activities

10/12/16

Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. (Tokyo)

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Research collaboration

For a preclinical candidate focused on cancer

A team of Dana-Farber scientists will partner with Daiichi Sankyo on the development of a translational pharmacology package with experimental animal and patient-derived xenograft models established at the institute

10/13/16

DNA Electronics Inc. (Carlsbad, Calif.)

Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority

Contract

To develop its sequencing platform for rapid diagnosis in two key applications: antimicrobial resistant infections and influenza

The contract for the project, titled PISCES (Pathogen Identification from Specimen, via Capture Extraction and Sequencing), will enable DNA Electronics to complete the development and validation of its Genalysis platform and support a series of applications to the FDA for marketing clearance; its first product will be a rapid blood-to-result diagnostic system to meet an unmet need in the treatment of serious bloodstream infections leading to sepsis; the contract award is for $51.9M

10/3/16

Eisai Inc. (Woodcliff Lake, N.J.)

Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation

Collaboration

To study the autoimmune disease lupus

Eisai's research team at its Andover innovative Medicines (AiM) Institute will work with a member of OMRF's Arthritis and Clinical Immunology Research Program to study the role of certain genes and how they affect the human immune response in lupus patients

10/27/16

Emergent Biosolutions Inc. (Gaithersburg, Md.)

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response

Contract

For five years to fund development activities of an anthrax vaccine that might be effective in as few as two doses

The five-year, $198.7 million contract, between ASPR's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and Emergent will fund the remaining development activities required for the company to apply for FDA licensure; the work includes a phase III trial to determine the effectiveness of Nuthrax, as well as a phase II study to evaluate the vaccine's safety and whether it interacts with an antibiotic administered as part of the routine treatment following anthrax exposure

10/3/16

Human Metabolome Technologies Inc. (Boston)

National Institute on Aging

Contract

To provide high-resolution metabolomic profiling of human brain tissue samples

It will support a study examining clinical, genetic, epidemiologic and imaging data to better understand the mechanisms operating in Alzheimer's disease in hopes of potentially identifying novel biomarkers that might be predictive of disease before the onset of symptoms

10/24/16

IFM Therapeutics Inc. (Boston)

Institute of Innate Immunity within the University of Bonn

Agreement

To form a German subsidiary, IFM Therapeutics GmbH, in Bonn, and to establish a research site at the institute

The research site will focus on work with two of its scientific co-founders, Eicke Latz and Matthias Geyer; over the next several years, the company plans to scale up the Bonn subsidiary to accelerate its R&D efforts in inflammatory sciences and medicine

10/27/16

Kalgene Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Montreal)

National Research Council of Canada

Agreement

To develop, scale up, and transfer the technology needed to manufacture a promising novel Alzheimer's treatment in Canada that the parties have been co-developing since 2015

The agreement is worth more than C$1M; the treatment, a biologic molecule made up of a peptide that fights Alzheimer's and an antibody-based carrier molecule designed to shuttle the peptide into the brain, is a custom-engineered therapeutic developed at NRC

10/4/16

Neovacs SA (Paris)

Hospital Chochin (Paris)

Collaboration

To achieve proof of concept for the use of the firm's immunotherapy candidate, IFNalpha Kinoid, in the treatment of type 1 diabetes

Work will involve research on IFNalpha Kinoid in non-obese diabetic mouse models to determine whether the use of the vaccine can control type 1 diabetes by producing polyclonal neutralizing antibodies to interferon-alpha

10/13/16

Newlink Genetics Corp. (Ames, Iowa)

Health and Human Services' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority

Contract

To support the advanced development of rVSV∆G-ZEBOV GP (Ebola Zaire) vaccine candidate, designated V920

BARDA issued a $24.8M contract to a subsidiary of Newlink, which includes an additional $51M of contract options which may be exercised by BARDA

10/6/16

Paratek Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Boston)

U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases

CRADA

To study omadacycline against pathogenic agents that cause infectious diseases that affect public health and biodefense

The studies are designed to confirm humanized dosing regimens of omadacycline for efficacy against pathogens such as Yersinia pestis (plague) and Bacillus anthracis (anthrax)

10/12/16

Renova Therapeutics Inc. (San Diego)

Research Development Foundation

Exclusive, worldwide license

To a urocortin 3 gene patent, which Renova plans to research for development of paracrine gene therapy treatments in cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure

The patent expands the intellectual property estate of the company, which has previously obtained a license agreement for RDF's patent portfolio of stresscopin and urocortin genes and peptides

10/12/16

Riptide Bioscience Inc. (San Francisco)

National Cancer Institute

CRADA

Agreement for Riptide's peptide RP-182 for the treatment of pancreatic cancer

Research under the CRADA is intended to generate data to support an IND filing of this agent with the FDA

10/4/16

Second Genome Inc. (South San Francisco)

King's College London

Agreement

To conduct microbiome profiling and analysis for the college's Enquiring About Tolerance (EAT) study in eczema and food allergies in young children

The randomized, controlled study of food allergy prevention will investigate both skin and gut microbiota of more than 300 infants at multiple points over the course of the first year of life, seeking to discover whether early introduction of allergenic foods into an infant's diet can prevent the development of food allergies; EAT also will examine whether other allergic conditions, such as asthma, eczema and hay fever, can be prevented by the same approach

10/12/16

Sirenas LLC (San Diego)

California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr)

Collaboration

To discover and develop small molecules in oncology, neuroscience, regenerative medicine and neglected disease

Sirenas will provide Calibr with access to its marine-derived chemical diversity, Atlantis data mining technology and synthetic chemistry expertise; Calibr will evaluate compounds in a series of biological assays and preclinical disease models; the parties plan to co-develop promising leads through definitive preclinical and early clinical studies

10/19/16

Spark Therapeutics Inc. (Philadelphia)

Guangping Gao, professor of microbiology and physiological systems at the University of Massachusetts Medical School

Multiyear research agreement

To identify adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors from a proprietary library of AAV capsids and evaluate their efficacy

The goal is to enhancing the efficiency of gene delivery to cells in the retina, liver and central nervous system; Spark has the option to an exclusive, worldwide license for the intellectual property developed under the agreement

10/21/16

Spotlight Innovation Inc. (West Des Moines, Iowa)

Indiana University Research and Technology Corp.

Exclusive, worldwide license agreement

To commercialize STL-182, an orally available small molecule that may have therapeutic potential for treating spinal muscular atrophy

Terms were not disclosed

10/20/16

Synthetic Biologics Inc. (Rockville, Md.)

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Contract

To support research conducted during the company's ongoing randomized, placebo-controlled phase IIb proof-of-concept study of SYN-004 (ribaxamase), designed to protect the gut microbiome from the unintended effects of certain commonly used intravenous beta-lactam antibiotics to prevent Clostridium difficile infection, antibiotic-associated diarrhea, and the emergence of antibiotic-resistant organisms

The contract will bolster the CDC's efforts to assess how selective pressure from I.V. antibiotics may lead to the emergence of antibiotic resistance in the gut microbiome

10/7/16

Txcell SA (Valbonne, France)

University of British Columbia

Collaboration

Covering the development of a CAR-Treg-based cellular immunotherapy for the prevention of graft rejection in the context of solid organ transplantation

Activities will be led by UCB's Megan Levings

10/20/16

Vaxil Biotherapeutics Israel (R&D arm of Vaxil Bio Ltd.; Toronto)

Hadassah Medical Center (Rehovot, Israel)

Agreement

To work together on Vaxil's immunotherapy platform, including Immucin (MUC-1 peptide vaccine)

The collaboration will include the collection of clinical samples obtained from cancer patients and healthy volunteers at Hadassah, which will be utilized and analyzed in conjunction with Vaxil's immune therapies and potential combination treatments currently under consideration

10/21/16

Zucara Therapeutics Inc. (Vancouver, British Columbia)

Center for Drug Research and Development

Licensing deal

For access to a patented set of therapeutic drug compounds that will define its lead drug candidate

CDRD and Zucara will work to develop preclinical first-in-class antagonists with the demonstrated potential to specifically block somatostatin type 2 receptors for preventing hypoglycemia in diabetes patients

10/17/16


Notes

This chart does not include grants or contract awards, or agreements between biotech companies and clinical trial centers.

The date indicated refers to the BioWorld Today issue in which the news item can be found.

Some institutions listed have for-profit components.

CRADA = Cooperative Research and Development Agreement.

For more information about individual companies and/or products, see Thomson Reuters Cortellis.